Being Geek

Appendix B. The Rules of Back Alley Bridge

Back Alley is a simple version of bridge with some strong similarities to Spades and Hearts. A quick search of the Web reveals a version of Back Alley Bridge was popular during the Vietnam War. I learned this version during my college career at University of California, Santa Cruz.

A full game is a relatively long experience, running roughly 1 to 2 hours, depending on speed of play. Don’t play drunk; it’s not fun.

Preparing for Back Alley Bridge

You will need:

• 1 deck of 52 standard playing cards (including jokers).

• The 2 jokers need to be marked to make them distinguishable from each other. I recommend using a felt-tip pen to mark 1 joker with the word “BIG” and mark 1 with the word “LITTLE” (see "Rules of Play“).

• 1 pad of paper and writing utensil used to keep score.

• 4 players (2 teams).

Rules of Play

1. PLAYERS AND CARDS DEAL

   1. The players form 2 teams. Players on the same team sit facing each other.

   2. The game is played clockwise.

   3. The trump in Back Alley is always SPADES.

   4. The BIG joker used in Back Alley is the highest trump card. The LITTLE joker is the second-highest trump card.

   5. The cards in each suit rank from highest to lowest:

      1. A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2.

      2. For the trump, or Spades, the BIG and LITTLE jokers would come before the ace.

2. DEAL

   1. Initial dealer is determined at random.

   2. The dealer shuffles and deals out all cards so that each player has 13 cards. This will leave 2 cards left over.

   3. Turn to deal rotates clockwise.

   4. Each subsequent hand is ...